Spring 2008 Newsletter

Dively Committee Activities

News from Chris Waters
Hans W. Gatzke '38 Professor of Modern European History and History Department Chair

The 2007-2008 Dively Committee has some twenty members: seven members of the faculty and staff and a dozen or so students. There are roughly ten active members at any one time who play a role in bringing events to Williams that address issues of sexuality.

We have been meeting around every two weeks at the Tunnel City Cafe, planning a number of events for the Spring while bringing about events in the Fall. Early in the year we co-sponsored a talk with various departments and programs by Adam Ashworth, a scholar at Northwestern University. Adam came to Williams to speak on AIDS in Africa.

Our major event for the Fall was to fund, promote, and help organize the visit of LA-based performance artist Tim Miller, who, to a nearly-packed house in the refurbished Adams Memorial Theatre, performed his new one-man show, 'US', a moving reminiscence about growing up queer in the midst of the Vietnam War, listening to show tunes, and a devastating critique of current US foreign policy and policy with respect to gay marriage and the status of gay immigrants.

Later in the semester we worked with the Gaudino Scholar, Julie Cassiday, to bring about an informal dialogue between many queer students and faculty on campus with Kristian Legierski, a black, gay, Polish activist and founder of one of the first gay clubs in Warsaw. An informal late afternoon conversation about queer activism, politics, and the Right in Poland in the context of its accession to the European Union was followed by a wonderful evening of dinner and drinks with the speaker.

Finally, in December the Dively Committee supported a special screening at Images Cinema (free to those with a Williams ID) of a short film series assembled by local film-makers and museum curators, "XXX-Mas Movies: eXploring seXuality through eXperimental film", a number of which dealt with queer issues. We have many events planned for the Spring and hope to update you on those soon.

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